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Growing up, I was always the kid with my head in the clouds (I'll admit I've been called a "space cadet" more than once) but my actual interest in the objects outside of our atmosphere didn't launch until I fulfilled my college science credits with two semesters of astronomy. It was one of my favorite classes of all time: learning about different planets and galaxies, observing the moon through powerful telescopes, and—shockingly for an artist—working the calculus of space physics. These days, I dip my toes into the pool of astronomy with a set of apps.

For years now, Michael Pollan has become the authority on the relationship that human beings have to food in the modern mechanized, industrial world. He has written on gardens, the inter-relationship between specific plants and their human users, the food systems that operate in our world, the ethics of our diets and the deeper meanings behind our cooking traditions. In short, he has become one of the most influential authorities on what we put in our stomachs. In the process he has helped foster a whole new approach to food that has manifested in artisenal pickle shops, kombucha in every store, and a renewed focus on locality in our food

One of the books in my current stack is Let My People Go Surfing, written by Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard. The book is structured into two parts: the first half is a brief history of the company from its origins as a beachside blacksmith shop producing climbing equipment. The other is a company handbook on the founding principles and values on which the billion-dollar company makes its decisions.

Bryan Stevenson is a very quiet revolutionary. His career until recently was very much "on the ground." He worked as a lawyer and advocate among those people whose race, class and the circumstances of their lives had disadvantaged them in the world. It was good work to do and he did it well. He won a MacArthur in 1995 and he gave a groundbreaking TED talk. But what is remarkable is that at the absolute summit of his career he made a move that was truly revolutionary: he looked to the past and made something.

The something he made is in Montgomery, Alabama––a city that might not be on many peoples' travel itinerary. What Stevenson

"Have you seen 'The Wire'?" has somehow managed to become a cliche question and an earnest inquiry. On the one hand, for a long time, especially during the end of its TV run and right after it concluded, it was a question meant to signify one's own highbrow-yet-gritty tastes in high end television. Talking about the Sopranos was something that fit in too neatly with other mob-genre films like The Godfather and Goodfellas.

"The Wire," by contrast, was idiosyncratic. And as with most under-acclaimed media that gains a following, it is easy for it to become a signifier of taste and turn into something overrated and under-criticized. In

These are thoughts, the artwork, the news stories, the tools, the food, the conversations, and whatever else we just can't get out of our heads this month.

If you're not familiar with SpaceX by now, maybe Tuesday's launch of the SpaceX Falcon Heavy will spark your interest. SpaceX, a private company that builds and launches rockets/spacecraft, will test-flight their most powerful rocket yet (and one of the most powerful rockets period) - the Falcon Heavy. Success or failure, it will be an awesome and potentially historical launch....

These are thoughts, the artwork, the news stories, the tools, the food, the conversations, and whatever else we just can't get out of our heads this month.

Many are schmaltzy, a few actually festive, and plenty completely unwatchable, but like it or not, the annual viewing of many a holiday film classic just comes along with the season. And if someone in your house is going to watch one anyway, you might as well make it something worth revisiting year after year.

This August 11th and 12th will be the peak of what is traditionally the biggest meteor shower of the year known as the Perseids, but this year it'll be the meteor event of the decade. Every year the Perseids features about 100 meteors per hour, but this week there should be double that due to the unique positioning of Earth's orbit this year...

Each Wednesday, I post some of my favorite can't-miss links, images, and otherwise mindblowing goodies from across the web.

Artist Ray Cicin had had enough of his designer friends talking smack about the humble ball point pen. So he gathered up all their discarded and leftover pens and set about to create this huge, wall-sized piece.

President Obama is visiting Alaska today, and before he leaves, he'll have renamed a mountain. That peak, the tallest in the United States with a summit elevation of 20,237 ft, has been officially known in the United States as Mount McKinley since 1917, having been dubbed so by gold prospectors in the late 1890s who wished to promote their favorite presidential candidate.

This week, the mountain will be officially designated Denali, meaning "the great one" in the Athabaskan languages of the Alaska Natives who live there, and the name that locals have used for the peak for centuries.

Have you ever heard of card juggling? You know, it's like in the old timey cowboy movies, where the rowdy grizzled guys are sitting in a salon, and they invite the new young gun to gamble with them, thinking they'll take all his money, but then he sits down and takes the deal and starts flipping cards left and right, thereby showing them and the audience that he's actually really good at poker and is about to school these dudes. Right. Like that.